On London's Kings Road, a French connection
The Kings Road in Chelsea, West London, was long a showcase for quintessentially British fashion. But it is now home to French fashion outposts like Petit Bateau, Comptoir des Cotonniers and Zadig & Voltaire.

Armani, McCartney, Ford: New stars in skin care products
Today, in a world gone celebrity crazy, iconic fashion designers want to harness the power of their public persona and use it to launch a line of skin care products.

Why the overwhelming numbers of design flops?
The grim truth is that most new designs are much more likely to be derivative, pretentious, ugly, cumbersome or wasteful than those that are not. That's why buying some new products dispiriting process of choosing the one you dislike least.

Camouflage: The art of war
It is a long stretch from the trenches of the Great War to the salons of haute couture. But camouflage - the disruptive patterns that break up the body shape or blend in with surroundings - has made that leap.

At opening of 'Surreal Things,' a Surreal spirit
Revelers including Viktor & Rolf, Stephen Jones and George Melly celebrated last week the opening of "Surreal Things" at London's Victoria & Albert Museum.

Obituary: Steven Robinson, Dior designer
Steven Robinson, 38, the man seen as the alter ego of the fashion designer John Galliano, was found dead in his Paris home on Wednesday, according Sidney Toledano, president and chief executive of Dior. Unconfirmed reports said that he had died of cardiac arrest.

Helvetica: The little typeface that leaves a big mark
Helvetica delivers its message cleanly and efficiently. And it plays such an important part in our lives that the Museum of Modern Art in New York is celebrating its 50th anniversary by acquiring a set of the original lead type.

Dancing through the 1980s with Gaultier
The show "Jean Paul Gaultier/Régine Chopinot, Le Défilé" creates a fascinating study of design in motion at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, focusing on the alliance of the designer Jean Paul Gaultier with the modern dance choreographer Régine Chopinot.

Paris's Colette boutique celebrates its 10th birthday
Behind the store are Sarah Lerfel and her mother, Colette Roussaux, for whom the store is named. The policy is simple: Always be new, fresh, surprising - and streets ahead of the rest.

The Surrealist comeback in design
The exhibition "Surreal Things" at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London explores the relationship between Surrealism and design. And it examines the ambiguity of Surrealism's relationship with commerce, and the tensions that developed during its transition from an avant garde art movement in the 1920s to a commercial design style from the 1930s.

Confessions on a sales floor from Madonna
Madonna has just launched her "M by Madonna" line for the Swedish retailer H&M; but the pop star also says she is thinking of doing a 25-year retrospective of her performance and personal clothes.

Liz Hurley: Celebrity is in the eye of the beholder
The wedding of Elizabeth Hurley and Arun Nayar in Jodhpur, India, is being touted as the wedding of the century. Guests included the Texan social queen Lynn Wyatt, Elton John's partner David Furnish and the Bollywood actress Preity Zinta.

Kate Moss: Top of the shops
It is as black and shiny and slithery as a wet seal and it shows a lot of bared skin below the pouting face of Kate Moss.

Reinventing the look (even smell) of a book
When Irma Boom suggested designing a book in an unusually squat size and shape, it didn't go down well with the publisher.

Can Calvin Klein seduce the 'millennial' generation with its CK in2u fragrance?
Calvin Klein Inc. and Coty, its fragrance licensee, will introduce CK in2u, a sequel to its hugely successful CK One, for a new generation. In so doing, the brand hopes to rejuvenate a fragrance embodying the essence of hip 20-somethings — even at the risk that such a notion is as outdated as a Prince song about partying like it's 1999.

Humanitarian goals, tech-savvy solutions
The Open Architecture Network is the latest — and one of the most ambitious — examples of the Internet's growing role in empowering design in the developing world.

For winter, Lanvin creates soft silhouette for a woman of substance
Alber Elbaz designs wearable clothes with visible form-fitting folds for a womanly shape.

Trendspotting in Paris
Rundown of the fashion highlights from the runways in Paris.

From Alberta Ferretti to Zac Posen, gloves make a comeback
Beaded and embroidered, long or short, sales of this winter item are growing.

Tiny Icelandic firm warms quickly to the fashion world
The Baugur Group's fashion investments have a total of about 2,500 stores, mostly in Britain but also in other countries.

Young Parisians accentuate the practical with vintage accessories
Brands like A.P.C., Isabelle Marant, Comptoir des Cotonniers, Zadig & Voltaire and Vanessa Bruno are the staples.

A fashion thread, in paper instead
"RRRIPP!! Paper Fashion" at the Benaki Museum in Athens traces elements of fashion, history, art and design in paper clothing.

Theyskens offers a first show for Nina Ricci
A different, more urban look than long-skirted elegance.

Alaïa is a master of his craft
Azzedine Alaïa incorporates the à jour technique into his new collection

A streetwise look from Chloé
Paulo Melim Andersson has shifted to something tougher and more masculine from the feminine Chloé aesthetic

Niklaus Troxler: A festival's founder illustrates his passion for jazz
Ever since the first Willisau jazz festival in 1975, the posters have been the same size, printed in the same workshop and designed by the same man, the Swiss graphic designer and founder of the festival, Niklaus Troxler. All of the posters sparkle with Troxler's twin passions for jazz and design.

Chanel skates on thin ice
Karl Lagerfeld's themed collection followed fashion rather than
leading it.

The black magic of YSL's Stefano Pilati
The designer's dark, bold and upscale collection with clean lines and away-from-the-body shapes shows that he is loosening up.

Wowing the sweet young things
Giambattista Valli had something for everyone at the Paris shows, including the talent spotters who might (or might not) be looking for a designer to pick up the Valentino flame.

Léonard's insouciant chic collection
Léonard's designer, Véronique Leroy, puts her energy into color and comfort that showed up in quilted coats, evening dresses and cashmere trousers.

'Pure frustration' drove production of Paradis, a new French men's magazine
The publication, owned by Thomas Lenthal, has versions in both English and French, as well as something of a highbrow slant.

Parisian women — adapt or adopt?
Each fashion season seems to generate It fever.

Hussein Chalayan creates an extraordinary melange
Although climate change is not a consumer industry's chosen topic, the Paris autumn shows are evoking current concerns and fears.

Ungaro's dancing queens
Paris Fashion: The Ungaro collection Thursday focused on a star whose light never seems to dim: the disco diva.

When luxury companies play the name game
So many labels for a company or product are already taken.

Children's clothes on a growth spurt in Japan
The sector has begun to turn around and a renovated Japanese department store is accommodating the trend.

Combat couture
At Ennio Capasa's collection for Costume National, tough chicks marched down the runway in drab khaki coats of alpaca or flannel, relaxed jodhpurs and suits with shoulders like rounded epaulets.

Buckle up!
The buckle remains the symbol of the Vivier collection, as it has been since the 1960s.

Arrivederci Valentino? Lacroix's focused fireworks
Valentino did himself proud with an ode to glamour that he still managed to make modern and relevant.
- Kawakubo goes Kawaii
- Manmade Van Noten
- Issey Miyake: Magic in style
- Lagerfeld's varnish
- Loewe's leather festival
- Tao: Webs of color

French designers with a gleam in their eye
A new generation of designers and jewelry enthusiasts is driving a resurgence in the very Parisian notion of costume jewelry.

Loulou de la Falaise's new jewelry 'Fantaisies'
The muse of Yves Saint-Laurent is creating her first diffusion line of jewelry and decorative objects for the home.

In Paris, Balenciaga and Dior show their colors
Balenciaga's Nicolas Ghesquière races beyond retro-futurism in symbols, colors and emblems; Dior outdoes himself in glamour, embellishment and richesse.

Avant garde goes for edgy romance
Some designers are taking the juxtaposition literally, melding hefty and liquid materials, while others insinuate romance as an emotional extra.

Fashion: Juxtaposition and mixing
With mixed fabrics and textures the height of fashion, the pioneering work of Adam Jones has come into its own.

Where to get pampered in Paris
Services are discreet; confidentiality is both a charm and a frustration. So homework must be done weeks in advance.

Japanese motorcyclists' leathery look
Kadoya, a family-run business, has been saddling up enthusiasts since 1935.

From New York to Tokyo, hats make a quiet comeback
Berets, wide-brimmed hats and cloches popping up on the runways, plus an increase in the number of students signing up to be schooled in the subject, seem to indicate that another millinery moment is imminent.

Fashion: Technopolis in Paris
Viktor & Rolf offered an astounding production on the first big day of the autumn Paris shows.

Beyond Fast fashion, where high- and low-cost coexist
Creating styles with prices that vary wildly, designers are creating a new alternative to fast fashion.

Museum integrity vs. designer flash
There is a general feeling that museums are buckling under the pressure of hugely rich designers offering clothes, cash and marketing expertise.

"Kylie — The Exhibition" draws a young crowd to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
'I never realized what impact those gold hot pants would have," says Kylie Minogue about the tiny gilded shorts on show under glass at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Swedish design: Minimalist no more
Taking inspiration from club kids and party culture is common in cities like London, New York and Paris but is a new phenomenon in Stockholm.

For new stars of the runway, youth isn't all
A recent crop of 40-plus female designers — with labels like Easton Pearson, Miss Italy, Sophie Theallet, Bella Freud and E+J — are setting the pace with small, unpretentious collections.

See it on TV, click on it, wear it
Fans are now just clicks away from owning the clothes and accessories worn by characters on more than 100 television shows and movies.

From the house of Chanel, a collection of 10 new perfumes
At 31 rue Cambon, near the Place de la Concorde and on the third floor above the Chanel store, there is an apartment with exquisite 17th century Chinese wooden screens, no kitchen and no bedroom.

Thais study abroad and bring fashion skills back home
Designers are emerging on the Bangkok fashion scene who show influences of training in London and New York.

Indian designers look to export their heritage
They have watched in recent years as Parisian and Mi***se designers jetted into India for fabrics and ideas, and then cut their clothes to Western sensibilities. And now many here are asking: If India's heritage inspires Western designers, shouldn't India export that heritage itself, through its own crop of designers?

In China today, you are what you wear
China's thirst for brand name products is no secret, with Chinese consumers already accounting for 10 percent of global luxury sales.

Fame and fear in Hollywood: Marchesa's fashion fairy tale
Two young London designers are learning that fast fame -- and dating the right guy -- in Hollywood has its down side.

Flamenco fashions with runway flair
Over the past decade, more and more young designers have been shaking up the regional gypsy costume, employing unexpected fabrics like cashmere or imitating urban streetwear.

Israelis 'work in the moment'
Obstacles to growth lead Israeli designers to concentrate on their own boutiques.

Southern fashion goes North, and shines
Clothing companies based in the Southern Hemisphere have entered international markets with great savvy and success.

Oscar fashion: The story behind "Who are you wearing?"
Before we bewail the decline in celebrity subtlety and mores, it might be nice to know that the Oscars tradition of sartorial opportunism is deep-dyed.

Versace offers luxe with dash
Emotion was high backstage at the Versace show, which closed the Italian season last week.

Material woman: Fabric is the future
At Milan Fashion Week, designers could be divided into those who embraced the fluffy, shiny or plasticated surfaces and those who believed the shape of things to come means only a bubble skirt or a long lean silhouette.
- Trendspotting in Milan

Dominatrix & Gabbana! Fendi is refined
With the Italian government falling and dire daily news from Iraq, it is hard to get steamed up about a fashion show — although that was obviously the intention of the design duo who should now be tagged Dominatrix and Gabbana.

Ballyhoo
Limited edition shoes from Bally's history have been updated, with minimal changes, and put on sale at the re-opened store on Via Montenapoleone in Milan.

Milan fashion, Off-piste
Yes! It's snow time! Not, of course, around this city, where the precocious spring weather has ruined the favorite weekend sport of the Mi***se.

Gucci flirts with the '40s
Frida Giannini caught the man/woman mood, with military overtones, of the autumn/winter Milan season.

Military fits like a glove
The return of the glove brings back a sense of sober, tidily dressed chic. And nowhere was that switch more surprising than at Roberto Cavalli's show.

Hollywood calling!
From the Los Angeles Emporio Armani Fashion Fan Club: Hey there, Mr. Armani! We hear you are coming to Los Angeles to give a swanky show on Saturday for the Hollywood types. Could we ask you a favor?

Armani plans for posterity
The Italian designer is taking a giant step toward posterity with the announcement Monday that he is donating the contents of a retrospective of his work to the city of Milan to help support a monument by the architect Tadao Ando.

Fashion gets tough
The empowered woman is the subject of forward-looking fashion. Not the "power woman" of the 1980s, whose objective was to deal in gender warfare. Nor the recent female persona tinted with pink girlishness.

Prada vision light years ahead
The most-aware designer in Milan has once again thrown a wrench in the fashion works.

Creative director brings fun to Tod's
The appointment of Derek Lam has added zing to the accessories firm.

An unlikely inspiration for Graeme Black
A chance visit on a wet London day took Graeme Black to the somber but compelling Imperial War Museum, which inspired his collection. The uniforms he saw there were transformed into a collection that was as light as it was luxe.

For Ballantyne, a blend of country casual and urban sophistication
Aubergine velvet pantsuits, narrow pin-striped coats and prints inspired by Audrey Hepburn's visits to Ballantyne in the 1950s have taken the Scottish-Italian company way beyond the heathery hills.

Women's point of view
It may be true that female designers start with their emotions and their bodies, while male designers tend to project a larger vision.

London Fashion Week has a global glow
International brands are sniffing out the city.

Ralph Lauren goes for the gold
With his calm sense that all is right and orderly with the fashion world, Ralph Lauren sets a gold standard for American fashion — and never more so than on Friday when gilt was his trip.

Combing the New York runways for a certainty of taste
It is hard to believe that the designers who are showing in New York Fashion Week could build a lifelong following from clients. There is just not the clarity of vision or the absolute conviction that gives an indelible signature.

Ralph Rucci, the weightless designer
An exhibition in New York is devoted to 25 years of his work.

Brrrr! Designers are reflecting climate change
When a hip crowd gathered at the Industria Super Studio in downtown Manhattan to support former Vice President Al Gore's project, climate change was on everybody's mind.

Modern glamour at New York Fashion Week
Isaac Mizrahi made a runway comeback after a long absence and Oscar de la Renta made it seem easy.

Von Furstenberg and Karan: the softer, stronger women
Volume is now the key to autumn/winter 2007 and although the American shows have picked up on a trend already seen at the spring collections in Paris, there is a big change from pencil thin to something softer and more nuanced.

Marc Jacobs unpeels the layers
A celebrity audience had to wait the requisite hour and a half for Marc Jacobs to reveal the secrets of his fall/winter 2007 collection, and the answer was a surprise.

School's out for Saint Martins master class
Half the students on the calendar of London Fashion Week went through Central Saint Martins school, the talisman for aspiring fashion designers.

Marc rises to a new level
Marc Jacobs, who creates upscale clothes, has left the rock-frock world behind and created an enviable new collection.

The Brit pack can't forget those exhilarating '80s
Perhaps it is the British passion for history, or maybe just the researching methods of Saint Martin's School, but plumbing the past is a never-ending re-source. resource.

Jean Paul Gaultier turns from Madonna to the Madonna
The bad-boy designer moved from dressing Madonna to dresses inspired by the Madonna, including one with blood-red chiffon trickling over a black dress: "Celestial and a certain serenity," Gaultier said backstage.

Giorgio Armani's Indian odyssey
The fashion designer offers a scent of India in a preview of his spring/summer collection.

Anniversary! White Valentino, vivid Lacroix and pure Chanel
Landmark events and rites of passage are coming thick and fast this couture season: 45 years of Valentino, who celebrated with a snowdrift of a collection inspired by his famous all-white show of 1968. Christian Lacroix, once high fashion's newborn, reached 20 with a fantasia flourish of flowers on Tuesday.

At Dior, Galliano soars with 'Madama Butterfly'
With "Madama Butterfly" soaring on the soundtrack and exquisite gestures of Japanese elegance and embellishment, John Galliano sent out on Monday his most beautiful show yet for Dior.

Elie Saab's flashy fashion
With glaciers of silver sequins sparkling on icy gowns, Elie Saab hit the mountain peak of flashy fashion. No wonder Beyoncé Knowles is following in the high-heeled footsteps of Halle Berry by making the Lebanese-born Saab her designer of choice.

Dries Van Noten's cabinet of curiosities
With its blackamoor statue prancing in the window, its Mongolian rug patterned with dragons, its gleaming Japanese cabinet and its Murano glass chandelier, it could be just another of the upscale antique dealers who line the Left Bank of the Seine.

Hollywood red carpet jump-starts haute couture
The haute couture season opened with a splash here Monday. But for all the parties, store openings, glamorous front-row clients and fabulous dresses, the shows really kicked off two weeks ago in Los Angeles.

In a boy's world, Armani celebrates the man
The bullfighter Cayetano Rivera Ordóñez, 29, rising star of a Spanish matador dynasty, closed Giorgio Armani's show, his torso rippling under a tux.
- Zucchelli on Calvin
- Fendi on Fendi
- Traveling light

Gucci's Alpine romp looks back to 'snow glam'
Imagine the scene: The sexy, young urban male with a penchant for black clothes, heady cocktails and nocturnal clubs, is sent off to the mountains.

Feeling for the future — savage or cyberspace?
You didn't see any celebrity male wearing a silver suit at the Golden Globes? No masculine stars walked the red carpet in a spacesuit? None of them wore yellow fluff as if they were emerging from an egg? There were no Nascar uniform jumpsuits in shiny plastic?

In Gianni's memory, shiny and somber
In sober coats or dark suits, with clerical collars circling their throats, the Versace models marked a fashion moment: 10 years since the murder of Gianni Versace, whose work will be honored posthumously next month. Along with his sister Donatella, the designer will be added to the Rodeo Drive "Walk of Style" in Los Angeles.

Pitti show tailored to the surge in 'su misura'
The British call it "bespoke"; the public says "made-to-measure"; the Italians, "su misura." But in any language, the message is the same: Personal tailoring is back.

The digital challenge: Making easy-to-use devices
What makes something well designed? Millions of words have been written on the subject, but if you boil them down to basics, you end up with four questions.

Postage stamps: Miniature artwork with mass appeal
How do you sum up The Beatles on a square inch of sticky paper? That was the challenge facing Johnson Banks, the British graphic design team, after it was commissioned to design a set of postage stamps for the Royal Mail to commemorate the 50th anniversary of John Lennon's first meeting with Paul McCartney on July 6, 1957, at a school fete in their native Liverpool.

The designer Newson teams up with Gagosian Gallery
The opening of an exhibition of furniture by in New York demonstrates the new commercial heights 'design-art' is achieving.

A makeover for Manhattan 'street furniture'
New York City is undertaking a new project coordinate the designs of its public toilets, bus shelters and newsstands.

The new corporate logo: Dynamic and changeable are all the rage
Google's changing logo is part of a broad trend in so-called dynamic identities: corporate symbols that adopt different guises at different times or in different circumstances.

Sustainability in design moves onto the corporate agenda
The use of recycled materials among other aspects of sustainability are poised to become some of the most important issues in design.

Black is back, but in a superglossy way
The rise of the new black is partly the product of technological change and it reflects a troubled era haunted by war, terrorism and environmental crisis.

Design in 2006: A year of innovation and utility
The growth of design's importance is seen in record-breaking auction prices, economic competition and the need to show social and environmental usefulness.

A designer who marries practicality with a distinctive style
Other designers describe objects in terms of what they symbolize and the stories they tell, but Konstantin Grcic presents his — from Krups coffee machines to Lamy pens — in purely practical terms, because the design of his products is dictated by how they will be used.

At Design Miami, a showcase for limited editions
A new generation of young designers has graduated knowing that they can make a living from limited editions as the focus of their work, rather than a sideline. The second annual Design Miami, which opens on Friday, will highlight their work.

Style, function and the imperfect cellphone
Cellphones have changed the way we talk to each other, revolutionized our jobs and democratized the news media by enabling passers-by to photograph extraordinary events. But in most cases, their design has been sorely lacking.

Taking the pulse of the people: Newest awards by popular vote
What is America's favorite example of good design? The Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York has been asking that question by urging people to vote for their favorites in the first People's Design Awards.